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Shifting the global economy towards sustainability Making Money Our Servant Rather Than Our Master Right Livelihood Social enterprise Legal and Financial Issues
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Macro-level proposalsContraction & Convergence (C&C) is a model proposed by the Global Commons Institute, based in London, for a global settlement aimed at simultaneously reducing the use of fossil fuels and promoting greater global economic equity. Under C&C, a shrinking cap would be imposed on the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, with the level of emissions permitted reducing year after year. The speed of the contraction and the target for the final level of permitted emissions would be determined in negotiations between the world’s politicians, guided by scientific advice (Meyer 2000). Under the C&C model, countries would be awarded entitlement to generate carbon emissions, based on the size of their populations. Per capita allocations between economically rich and poor countries would converge over time towards equality, with everyone across the globe eventually entitled to the same level of emissions. This proposal would simultaneously i) penalize consumption of goods and services with a high fossil fuel component (since fossil fuels would become progressively more expensive as permitted emissions shrink); ii) effect a transfer of financial resources to the poorer countries of the South, whose citizens have a low level of dependence on fossil fuels; and iii) provide a strong incentive for all industries and countries to move away from dependence on (increasingly expensive) fossil fuels. This model has gained considerable political support among the countries of the global South and has strong supporters in the European parliament and in many European national parliaments. A related proposal is Tradable Energy Quota (TEQs), a system proposed by economist, David Fleming. This would allow for equal allocations of fossil fuels within countries, enabling those with low levels of fossil fuel use to sell their unused surpluses to those with heavier footprints (Fleming http://www.theleaneconomyconnection.net/downloads.html). The Oil Depletion Protocol is an alternative proposal, originally formulated by oil geologist Colin Campbell, and popularized by Richard Heinberg. This rejects the rationale of C&C, arguing that if the countries of the South were allowed to increase their use of fossil fuels in the short term, as would happen under C&C, they would inevitably build systems with a built-in dependence on fossil fuels, which would be self-defeating (Heinberg 2006). Better, the proponents of the Oil Depletion Protocol argue, would be to reach an agreement whereby i) fossil fuel producing countries would limit their production to no more than their present national depletion rate; and ii) fossil fuel importing countries would reduce their imports by the global depletion rate. This would fail to address the equity issue that is at the heart of the C&C model but would avoid the danger that the countries of the South would be tempted to construct fossil fuel dependent systems. Finally, Susan George is one of a number of economists who propose a programme of ‘Environmental Keynesianism’, in which governments would play the leading role in turning economies towards sustainability by investing heavily in the development of a new technological infrastructure based on renewable energy technologies (George 2007). Jeremy Rifkin, adviser on energy issues to the European Union, paints a persuasive picture that such a strategy is already being implemented, especially in Europe, with many state-sponsored programmes to promote the emergence of decentralized, renewable energy systems. In Germany alone, the renewable energy industry boasted an annual turnover of €21.6 billion and 214,000 workers in 2006. |
Contraction & convergence
The Oil Depletion Protocol
“Together we can save the planet” |
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